In successful capitalist economies urban land has become one of the best investments possible.
In the case of Chile -and many other cities in the world- long term profit and the low risk involved has led to the investment in land and real estate in general, making it the elite’s favourite investment as well as that of the middle class, who cannot afford the luxury of investing their savings in the stock market.

In a market where real estate and financial agents are associated, an unjust distribution of opportunities concerning territory has marked the configuration of Santiago, Chile. These inequalities reveal, and at the same time affect, the huge differences in value of metropolitan ground and the expectations of public investments in the city. Aiming towards growth some territories increase their value, while other territories, quite unaided by public efforts to turn around this tendency, progressively decrease in value.

GENARO CUADROS

was born in Santiago, Chile in 1967. He is an Architect from the Universidad La República and he has a Master´s degree in Applied Science, special mention in Urban Studies and Land Development from the l’Université Catholique de Louvain. He has been a policy-maker in urban heritage, and investment coordinator of urban and rural lands pertaining to the Chilean government. He is also consultant for the Mexican government in local crime prevention in Tapachula, Monterrey, Torreón and Ciudad Juárez in México. He is currently professor of Urban Studies at the School of Architecture of the Universidad Diego Portales where he is also the Director of the City and Landscape Lab.